The Wall Street Journal - 16.08.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Friday, August 16, 2019 |A9B

year. The 56-year-old officer,

who had been with the depart-

ment for 25 years and served

in its Strategic Response

Group, fatally shot himself at a

home in Laurelton, Queens, ac-

cording to a police official.

His suicide came a day after

another officer fatally shot

himself in Yonkers.

In his letter, Mr. de Blasio

detailed the depression, post-

traumatic stress disorder and

alcoholism that his father, a

decorated World War II veteran,

battled before killing himself.

His father, who lost part of his

leg during the war, died when

Mr. de Blasio was 18 years old.

Although his father was al-

ways strong physically, the

mayor said, it “wasn’t the kind

of strength he needed.”

“My dad couldn’t deal with

what he had lived through,” he

wrote in the letter. “I say from

experience: There is strength

in asking for help—in doing

the right thing for you and

your family.”

Mr. de Blasio said Thursday

that the city would look to its

health-insurance provider for

ways to make mental-health

services more affordable or

accessible to NYPD officers.

“There’s many, many areas

we’re going to have to work

on, but it begins with commu-

nication and letting our offi-

cers know that help is avail-

able,” the mayor said.

NYPD officials have said

that four or five officers typi-

cally die by suicide in a year.

But the department is on track

to log the highest number of

officer suicides in a year in

more than a decade.

The officials have called the

jump in 2019 a mental-health

crisis and are working to re-

think the NYPD’s mental-

health protocols and policies.

Dermot Shea, the NYPD’s

chief of detectives, said Thurs-

day that the department is

working to find ways to better

help its members. “This is not

unique to law enforcement,

but for us, we are hurting

right now, it’s been a very

tough year,” he said.

The mayor, a Democrat who

is running for president, also

has talked about his father’s

suicide on the campaign trail

and in a Wednesday appear-

ance on “The Daily Show with

Trevor Noah.”

Pat Lynch, the president of

the Patrolmen’s Benevolent

Association, said in a video

message posted Thursday on

Twitter that the suicides are

an opportunity for political

“grandstanding,” and said offi-

cers needed better health care,

higher pay and to be treated

with respect.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying
to stem a jump in suicides by
New York Police Department of-
ficers by speaking openly about
his father’s suicide in urging of-
ficers to seek help.
The mayor talked about his
family’s experience in a letter
sent to NYPD officers on
Wednesday night, shortly be-
fore a longtime officer became
the ninth member of the de-
partment to die by suicide this

BYKATIEHONAN
ANDTYLERBLINT-WELSH

Mayor Draws on Dad’s Death as Police Suicides Spike

GREATERNEWYORKWATCH

WOODSTOCK

Fans Mark 50 Years

Since Famed Festival

Tie-dyed pilgrims and white-
haired Woodstock festival veter-
ans converged at the generation-
defining site to celebrate its 50th
anniversary, while Arlo Guthrie
came back to sing—what else?—
“The Times They Are A-Changin’.”
Bethel Woods Center for the
Arts is hosting a series of events
Thursday through Sunday at the
bucolic 1969 concert site, 80
miles northwest of New York City.
“It was a great time,” Mr.
Guthrie told reporters, his long
white hair flowing from a straw
hat. “For me, the Woodstock
festival was a celebratory end of
an era. It was not the beginning
of anything. It was the end of
something, and it was an end of
a very turbulent time that was
also very wonderful.”
About 400,000 people
showed up for the original festi-
val on upstate New York farm-
land Aug. 15-18, 1969.
There won’t be overcrowding
this time. Visitors need event
tickets and travel passes to drive
to the site during the weekend.
The site was buzzing by Thursday
afternoon, with people stopping
by the on-site museum and the
monument near the stage area.
“This is like a pilgrimage. Com-
ing back to the holy land,” said
Glenn Radman, a 67-year-old
New Milford, Conn., resident who
was at the festival 50 years ago.
—Associated Press

NEW JERSEY

Outbreak-Response

Plans Now Required

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy

signed into law a measure re-

quiring certain long-term care fa-

cilities to submit outbreak-re-

sponse plans to the state.

Mr. Murphy on Thursday

signed the bill in response to the

deaths of 11 children last year at

the Wanaque Center for Nursing

and Rehabilitation.

One staff member and 36

residents, ranging in age from

toddlers to teens, were diag-

nosed with a severe strain of

adenovirus in the outbreak at

the facility in Haskell. Eleven

children died.

The strain found in the rehab

center outbreak is among the

more potent types and some-

times causes more serious respi-

ratory illness. The children at the

facility all had serious underlying

health conditions, officials said.

The law requires centers with

ventilator-dependent residents

to submit plans to the Health

Department within six months.

—Associated Press

NEW YORK

Bridge Signs Fixed

After Initial Omitted

What’s in a name? Or in the

case of New York’s new Gov.

Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, what’s

not in it?

Roughly year-old signs for the

long suburban bridge are being

patched over because they don’t

bear the former governor’s mid-

dle initial, the state Department

of Transportation said Thursday.

It is being done “to ensure

every sign reflects the official

name of the new bridge” and

make sure signs are uniform,

said department spokesman Jo-

seph Morrissey.

It wasn’t clear how many signs

are involved or how much the

fixes will cost. The Journal News

first reported on them, pegging

the number at dozens of signs.

The nearly $4 billion bridge

over the Hudson River opened

last year. Connecting Westchester

and Rockland counties north of

New York City, the span replaced

the former Tappan Zee Bridge—

or, officially, the Gov. Malcolm

Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge.

Lawmakers and current Gov.

Andrew Cuomo agreed to name

the new span after his late fa-

ther, who held the state’s high-

est office from 1983 through

1994. Mario Cuomo died in 2015.
      In a twist, Mario Cuomo had
      formally renamed the bridge to
      honor Gov. Wilson. It had been
      the Tappan Zee Bridge since 1956.
      —Associated Press

Visitors got into the spirit Thursday as the Bethel Woods Center

for the Arts hosted events to mark Woodstock’s 50th anniversary.

BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS

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